There really is soooo much you can do with DAB/DAB+/DMB that not of the others can even dream of. And many of the standards and technologies are already set down.

I tend to think of myself as an early experimenter with DAB. My station and a handful of others plus the BBC were on DAB exploring its potential with the belief that this would defintlely be the future. The extended FM licence sweetener helped get the ‘industry’ invest in DAB, but the ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma (transmission investment Vs sets/listeners) remains the root of the problem. I think it’s safe to say that inexpensive sets are now with us, but coverage is still not. It remains for multiplex operators (still predominantly collectives of radio content businesses ) to fund transmission and thereby define the quality of coverage. Obviously now is not a good time for radio companies to be asked to dig into their pockets and shell out more money for DAB transmitter networks.

Like the Americans, I beleive that the multiplex idea is a real problem for single service radio stations as the ‘bouquet’ concept is rather awkward in business terms. Mux ownership by the groups was useful at the time to kick-start DAB, but sadly, and cynically, it allows exising broadcasters to control who is allowed access to the digital platform.

So for what it’s worth, if the Government really wants a digital radio Britain and avoid spectrum wastage (DAB + FM simulcasting) I beleive that they must re-think the whole multiplex ‘ownership’ arrangement and the legislation. DAB transmission should be built and managed by a totally separate, non-content businesses somehow. The financing would be challenging, I’m sure, but it feels viable if considered as a ‘long’ game. Then, as with FM, licencees just pay for theirs and – nobodly elses – transmission fees as with an FM, satellite or internet station.

Yes, the set take-up may well appear dis-heartening but anecdotally, all I can say is that ordinary (non radio) people that I meet think that a DAB Radio is the thing to have – like a big flat widescreen telly or an iPhone. They all say that the quality of reception and choice of channels is vastly superior to FM and I’m really not making it up. I tend to do my radio listening in the car and when I’m in range of a few DAB transmitters, I really appreciate the signal stability of DAB. Mobile listening is what DAB was actually designed for and it wipes the floor with FM and AM.

I haven’t gone into multi-standard DAB/DAB+/DMB sets, On-channel repeaters (fillers) or satellite radio, but that’s may for another time.

Regards

Phil

The bandwidth for the UK internet, never mind the cellular network, would be full if less than a third of Moyles’ listeners tuned in. Also they need to be ‘subscribers’ and someone ends up paying for that data… Broadcast has its benefits. 1 listener or 10m – my bandwidth costs are the same.

DAB, DAB+ and DMB – the three main digital radio standards – are all based on DAB and all new radios support all three of them – so there’s interoperability for listeners and manufacturers.

The major car operators have committed to DAB line-fit across Europe.

I think music streaming services are cool, but none of them have managed to afford the rights to offer even an ad-supported service (Spotify limits sign ups to different territories and forces some to be subs only as the ad model doesn’t pay their bills).

I know, I bet you didn’t think I read your posts!

A very interesting post, but I worry that there has been too much delay in DAB implementation, the technology is already as far as I can gather out of date and not in line with the rest of Europe. I seem to remember the Psion Wavefinder exploiting data capabilities of DAB, but that was a long time ago. Do you not think Radio stations broadcasting over 3G networks are a cheaper and better alternative? Look at the iPhone and Android based phones and I can get streaming radio/music in many different ways with dedicated applications. If quality is an issue services like Spotify could be a model (caching streams).

I know these points miss an important factor which of course is the car. Until DAB is in the car or some kind of ‘digital’ alternative to FM, then FM will still be king.

Anyway that’s my 2 pence, looks like you are doing well!
Thought you might be interested in this article on The Register:
Talking DAB and the future of radio

I’m really pleased that your community station’s had a successful launch.

What I wasn’t trying to say in the post was that FM’s unpopular. Of course, it’s hugely popular and massive numbers of people tune in every week – about five times the amount that listen to digital radio. If I was launching a station and wanted to reach the most amount of people it would definitely be on FM. However, that’s really hard to do as there aren’t going to be any more FM licences released for commercial radio.

One of the thing’s that I tried to say was that listening to FM-only stations is gradually reducing as people listen to more and more other platforms.

I think one of the reasons that your station didn’t do as well on DAB is partly where that platform is in it’s development cycle. As mentioned in the article – Radio 4 doesn’t get rubbish just because The Hits is on-air. Most of the stations that have been successful are the ones that provide a targeted complementary service – rock, kids etc. I think the hardest thing to do (as many incremental stations on FM have found too) is trying to attract listeners to a full-service type station. Making people leave their ‘favourite’ is always going to be a difficult task.

One was only on DAB – it never really got going. Despite all of us trying our absolute hardest to get the thing to work, the phone almost never rung with any listener contributions, the most common incoming phone call being “how do I pick you up, then?”. We filled the station up with local news, interesting guests and fantastic new talent – we built it but they never came and it had to be closed after six months.

The new station is on a brand new FM community licence, launched last week on what is meant to be a dying band. The group running the FM station is entirely unconnected to the former DAB station but it broadcasts a very similar format and carries over a significant number of presenters and shows. In the first week of broadcasting, the phones and email have been positively alight with contributions compared to the former DAB-only channel despite the FM station having a much reduced coverage area. I’ve been staggered by the number of people getting in touch with dedications, news, events and so on from such a small area.

From this experience, I’d have to say that FM is still the place to be if you want to gain a significant local audience. DAB may well be the go-to format for specialist stations like Fun Kids or Planet Rock in London or nationally, but the sort of audience who’d listen to a mainstream 25-55 local station just doesn’t seem interested.

Internet Radio – which has been around much longer, and with broadband penetration much higher, accounts for only 2.2% of all listening – and we don’t suggest turning that off, do we?

I’m yet to be convinced this out of date technology is the future of radio, to be honest.